Is it true that in Western schools children do not read programmatic works, but whatever they want? Why is there no such subject as literature in the US and UK? Skysmart online school experts (Skyeng school direction) tell what and how schoolchildren abroad read.
Unlike Russian schools, in educational institutions in the UK and the USA there is no division of subjects into their native language and literature – students simply learn English, which they gradually get used to using.
In elementary school, kids learn to read and write, and no one cares about handwriting – children write in block letters and use a pencil. The main thing is to learn the rules, and calligraphy as an art can be practiced even after school.
In the middle classes, the emphasis is no longer on memorizing the rules, but on writing an essay and honing the ability to express thoughts in a coherent way. This helps the study of the best examples of classical and modern works of literature.
The main goal of studying literature at school is to develop reading skills as such. Children must love books. Therefore, often in the classroom the whole class simply reads some work in a chain, and then discusses what they have read in free form or answers questions about the text.
But American and British children also write essays. Usually they are given at home: the student must read some book and write a book report – a brief retelling of the plot and his own thoughts about what he read.
What do US students read?
In America, each state decides for itself which books are included in the mandatory cultural baggage of an educated American. Education departments across the country compile their own lists—sometimes thousands of items! – and schools themselves select what to give to students.
But in most schools they study the same works. List of books for high school students that are familiar to all American graduates:
- “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
- “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
- “Little Women” Louisa May Alcott
- “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Mark Twain
- The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald
- The Red Letter, by Nathaniel Gothorn
- “An American Tragedy”, Theodore Dreiser
- Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
- “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad
- Animal Farm, George Orwell
- Moby Dick, German Melville
- “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes
- “Time Machine”, HG Wells
In the senior classes of many schools, children can choose an elective – a course of foreign literature: Russian, Latin American, Japanese, French.
What is read in English schools
There is no single program for all in England either, but there are lists of recommended literature, from which a plan for studying the classics is drawn up.
The British National Curriculum leaves schools with a lot of choice. The recommendations are very vague: for example, in high school it is proposed to include at least one play by Shakespeare, works of the XNUMXth, XNUMXth and XNUMXst centuries, poetry of the late XNUMXth century into the program. However, it is not forbidden to study the works of JK Rowling, and Tolkien’s saga, and the detectives of Agatha Christie.
The high school program usually includes:
- Great Expectations, The Adventures of Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare
- “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
- “Frankenstein”, Mary Shelley
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
- “Homecoming”, Thomas Hardy
- The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
- The Tragic History of Doctor Faust by Christopher Marlo
- Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
- “The Story of Tom Jones, the Foundling” by Henry Fielding
- Vanity Fair, William Thackeray
- The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
Unlike Russian schoolchildren, English students progress through the program extremely slowly – only 6-7 works pass a year. And this is not only classics – the lists of recommended literature also include books written 20-30 years ago, while the Russian program hardly advances beyond the beginning of the XNUMXth century.
One might assume that the relatively relaxed pace of learning literature does instill in children a love of belles-lettres. But, alas, schoolchildren in the West treat their native literature in much the same way as their Russian peers – many believe that the classics are too “fat”, boring and have nothing to do with real life. And some even cheat by reading summaries of books and not opening the originals.